The 13 Key Performance Indicators for Highly Effective Teams

An organisation’s most important asset is its people. And critical to an organisation’s success is the extent to which its people interact effectively — both with each other as team members and with the wider organisation. This is why managing teams has become a key area for a growing number of organisations around the world. While many organisations are world-class at managing their materials and machinery, they fall short in managing the human side of their activities.

This book outlines the challenges faced by both team leaders and team members in 21st-century workplaces. It proposes 13 key performance or ‘team health’ indicators for highly effective teams based on research data collected from a large range of industry sectors, team sizes and organisations in the UK. It contributes to the understanding of the nature and functioning of team cohesiveness by describing teamwork as a multi-component variable and identifying the factors that impact on teams and the implications of teamwork for organisations.

The book sets out to aid organisations by introducing a Team Performance Diagnostic (TPD) tool. The TPD enables organisations to gain an accurate and detailed insight into the real-time performance of their teams, helps team managers to understand the underlying ‘people’ issues within the team and how to reach higher levels of team performance quickly. The TPD has been widely used in major multinationals and the UK public sector to pinpoint hard-to-find opportunities to achieve rapid improvements.

The research suggests that the use of TPD contributes to more free-flowing feedback both within the team and in the organisation as a whole, and that successful teams are indicative of a healthy organisational culture.

This book is an essential guide for senior managers and policy-makers dealing with team effectiveness, and will be highly useful for students of business and management.

The book can be ordered from Greenleaf Publishing or directly from WASD via wasd@sussex.ac.uk. Academic and research institutions from the developing countries may qualify for FREE copy of the book.

Allam Ahmed
Allam holds a PhD in Economics and Management with backgrounds in Marketing, Strategy and International Business. He is a Full Member and Chartered Marketer of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, UK. He is currently the Director of MSc International Management, University of Sussex (UK) and has substantial experience in research and teaching in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (Belgium, Scotland, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, among others). Allam is editor and author of more than 100 refereed texts and articles in a number of international journals, books, conference proceedings, working papers, etc. he is founding editor of the World Review of Entrepreneurship, Management and Sustainable Development (WREMSD), and serves on the editorial board of five international journals in business and management. Allam is the Founding President of World Association for Sustainable Development (WASD) and Expert Advisor to the European Commission on International Scientific Cooperation and the United Nations. He has won several international awards and medals for contribution to international business/management research, including the Royal Agricultural College (UK) Scholarship and Prestigious Book Prize for Best MSc/MBA Dissertation.

George Siantonas
George set up SIA Group in 1982, a business that has now grown into a thriving management consultancy, serving the needs of a diverse range of clients on a global basis. As well as being the CEO of SIA, he is a Senior Principal Consultant. He has led seminars and workshops and advised global clients extensively in management and leadership development. His work has encompassed many countries and regions throughout the world, including Sweden, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Ireland, the UK, the Middle East, North Africa and Asia. As a result, he has gained a deep understanding of many diverse cultures and how they operate. George has a BA in Economics and Philosophy from the University of East Anglia, and has conducted seminars as an Associate Lecturer on the Business Studies degree course at the University of Sussex.

Nicholas Siantonas
Nick is a graduate from Sheffield University, UK, where he gained a BA Hons. in Politics and Economics. He is now works in a global think-tank on future social and business trends. As a consultant with SIA Group, Nick worked extensively on a project to gather research data on the challenges faced by team leaders and team members in 21st-century organisations. He then worked on the statistical analysis of the data and in drawing up the conclusions based on the data analysis, which led to the publication of a White Paper detailing the key findings of the research project that led to the current study.